Broken Silence, Chapter 3 – Crumble
Two weeks later...The team, still investigating the marine killer, is unraveling as quickly as the body count grows.
Tony sat at his desk, drumming a pencil to the beat of Springsteen's 'Born to Run.' He was supposed to be looking for a connection between all six dead marines, in hopes it would give them some kind of clue as to the marine killer's identity. Right now they had nothing, though Abby was working on new evidence gained from a raid of Bayliss' safe house yesterday.
Washington was breathing down Gibbs neck, which meant that the team was working days and nights, weekends too.
Frankly, Tony couldn't find anything and he was frustrated. He hoped Ziva was having better luck on a new angle she was taking with their warehouse assailant, Bayliss, whom they now believed to be an accomplice of the still living marine killer. He watched her from across his desk, drumming his pencil louder and with more enthusiasm as he got to the chorus.
He wanted to ask her what she had found, but something had changed since the warehouse incident two weeks ago. He wasn't sure if it was what happened at the warehouse, or just the pressure of the case, but Team Gibbs seemed to be crumbing.
Ziva was showing up to work with dark circles and bags under her eyes. Gibbs had even less tolerance for their lack of leads on the case, giving out more head slaps and glares than normal. McGee clearly blamed Tony for everything that happened to Ziva - if he hadn't have broken protocol, hadn't gone to her apartment, if he hadn't, hadn't, hadn't...
And Tony. He couldn't stop thinking about Rivkin. Saleem. About Ziva's time in Somalia. Maybe it was wrong that the moment they hit U.S. soil it was as if Somalia, Tel Aviv, and everything in between never happened. But they were, after all, trained agents. Trained to keep their feelings in check and to deal with and process situations of extreme stress.
They were once Team Gibbs. They could do anything. But now? Three weeks spent searching for the marine killer and no solid leads...
Tony looked around the room once more, at his teammates. They'd get there. They had to...right?
"So Z, you on a diet?" said Tony, finally breaking the silence.
"What?" Ziva questioned, annoyed as she looked up from her files.
"You're looking kind of scrawny." Sickly, is a better adjective, he thought.
"For your information, Tony, you are not the only one who has been working day and night on this case."
"Good, let's order pizza."
"I'm in," piped up McGee as he stood from his desk and stretched. "I just finished running the special algorithm on Bayliss' files and found something pretty interesting when I.."
"McGeeeeeee," groaned Tony. "Can we save the geek speak for after I get a few slices in my stomach?"
"I'm sorry, Tony, is my productivity interrupting your afternoon nap?"
"Spill it, McGee," Gibbs said as he returned to the bullpen after three tense hours in MTAC.
McGee glared at Tony. "As I was saying, I found something unusual on Bayliss' computer. A bunch of encrypted files. One is a list of names – codenames of some sort, actually – and six are crossed out. I think it may be his hit list."
"Print it. Now. Copy in MTAC in five."
"Right away, sir." McGee was already hitting the print button.
...
60 minutes and two pizzas later, Gibbs returned from MTAC, surprised to see his team quietly working for a change.
He stopped at Ziva's desk, eyeing her untouched food. "Pizza cold?"
She jumped, startled by his voice.
He leaned down, two hands on her desk, so that they were eye level. "Ziva?" He questioned.
"Gibbs...I...the angle I'm working on...Bayliss' accomplice..."
He gently stopped her stammering. "Ziva, I was just askin. Are you not hungry?"
"Oh." She shrugged, pushing the plate toward him, as if to offer.
"Ziva, McGee, go downstairs and see what else Abby has from Bayliss' house," ordered Gibbs.
Once Ziva and McGee were out of earshot, Gibbs picked up Ziva's untouched pizza, leaning against her desk as he slowly chewed. "Tony..." He started, but stopped, looking down at Ziva's desk.
"Yea boss, I notice it too."
Gibbs looked at Tony. He had been so thankful that the team had naturally slipped back into their usual routine, following the rescue. He was constantly fearful that he was leading the team wrong, that there was something he was missing. But when Ziva came back, everything clicked again, and Gibbs had renewed faith in his leadership. But now…
"I know the department psych cleared her, but do you think we need to address..." Tony was cut off by Gibb's ringing phone.
"McGee," said Gibbs as he hung up. "Abby's got something."
As Gibbs walked away, Tony watched his boss with disgust. He felt the same way he did toward Gibbs when they left Ziva in Tel Aviv. Why did he leave her? Why did he never, not even once, tell Tony he was right in killing Rivkin? Tony threw his pencil across the room with such force that it snapped in half as it hit Gibb's computer.
"You may not give a damn about her," Tony muttered. "But I'm not going to leave her; sit by and watch her continue to crumble."
Next Time…
"I am fine, Tony."
He bowed his head for a moment, sadly, at those three little words she had been repeating from the moment they left Somalia.
"What did he do to you, Ziva?"
Have a great day, all! Keep the comments coming and I'll get the next chapter up ASAP!